Lessons in Leadership, Career Pivots and Motivation from Brett Biggs

Brett Biggs: 00:00:00

Boy I learned really for the first time how

Brett Biggs: 00:00:02

each person is so unique and what they're motivated by. And

Brett Biggs: 00:00:06

some people need a pat on the back to be motivated. Sometimes

Brett Biggs: 00:00:10

somebody needs a little bit, a little bit of a little bit of a

Brett Biggs: 00:00:12

shove to be motivated. But you have to do that and managing

Brett Biggs: 00:00:17

people takes a lot of energy. But it's great. It's the best

Brett Biggs: 00:00:21

part of any job in my career.

Brent Williams: 00:00:23

Welcome to the Be Epic Podcast, brought to you

Brent Williams: 00:00:26

by the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of

Brent Williams: 00:00:29

Arkansas. I'm your host, Brent Williams. Together, we'll

Brent Williams: 00:00:33

explore the dynamic landscape of business and uncover the

Brent Williams: 00:00:37

strategies, insights and stories that drive business today. Well,

Brent Williams: 00:00:43

today I have with me, Brett Biggs. And Brett is the former

Brent Williams: 00:00:47

CFO of Walmart and serves as a board member for Procter and

Brent Williams: 00:00:52

Gamble, Yum! Brands, and Adobe and also a Senior Advisor for

Brent Williams: 00:00:57

Blackstone. Brett, thank you for joining us.

Brett Biggs: 00:00:59

Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks.

Brent Williams: 00:01:01

Well, super excited to get to dig in a

Brent Williams: 00:01:03

little bit with you. But before we get to, you know, your time

Brent Williams: 00:01:08

as CFO at Walmart and what you're doing now, I'd love for

Brent Williams: 00:01:12

you to walk us through your history and kind of what are

Brent Williams: 00:01:15

some of the experiences that really helped shape you?

Brett Biggs: 00:01:18

Yeah, so back to being born or a little later?

Brent Williams: 00:01:22

We can go a little later than that.

Brett Biggs: 00:01:23

I am a I am a native Texan, which sometimes

Brett Biggs: 00:01:26

doesn't sit well at University of Arkansas. But we've lived

Brett Biggs: 00:01:30

here for 23 years now. And my girls have grown up here. So

Brent Williams: 00:01:32

Absolutely.

Brett Biggs: 00:01:33

I consider myself an Arkansan. Yeah, I went to

Brett Biggs: 00:01:36

school at Harding University. So not far from here in Arkansas

Brett Biggs: 00:01:40

and had the chance to play golf, there wasn't really good enough

Brett Biggs: 00:01:45

to be D1. So I got a chance to play golf at Harding. And, and

Brett Biggs: 00:01:48

also it was a it was a great accounting school. And I

Brett Biggs: 00:01:52

actually thought I wanted to be pre med, like a lot of students

Brett Biggs: 00:01:56

do. And then I took my first organic chemistry class, and

Brett Biggs: 00:01:58

that was it. And I was, I was not intended to be

Brent Williams: 00:02:01

New path.

Brett Biggs: 00:02:02

I was not intended to be a doctor. So I don't

Brett Biggs: 00:02:05

actually remember choosing accounting. But Harding had a

Brett Biggs: 00:02:09

great accounting school. And so ended up in accounting. And soon

Brett Biggs: 00:02:14

as I took a class, it just it fit me. Things equaling on the

Brett Biggs: 00:02:18

left and the right made sense to me. And so that's that's kind of

Brett Biggs: 00:02:22

how it started in accounting. I met my wife at Harding, and

Brett Biggs: 00:02:26

we've been married, I need to get this right, almost 32 years.

Brent Williams: 00:02:29

Okay. Congratulations.

Brett Biggs: 00:02:31

Thank you. I have two daughters. My younger one

Brett Biggs: 00:02:34

maybe ends up at the University of Arkansas, potentially. So

Brett Biggs: 00:02:37

she's a Rogers High.

Brent Williams: 00:02:38

So I've got some work to do.

Brett Biggs: 00:02:39

We'll see how that goes. Yeah, started at Harding

Brett Biggs: 00:02:43

and then, like almost everybody in accounting at Harding went

Brett Biggs: 00:02:46

public accounting. And so I started out Price Waterhouse.

Brett Biggs: 00:02:50

And I was in I was at PW, it wasn't even PwC. That's how old

Brett Biggs: 00:02:54

I am. It was PW, you know, year and a half or so and wasn't

Brett Biggs: 00:03:00

crazy about auditing. I think my parents were concerned that I

Brett Biggs: 00:03:04

just didn't like to work. But I just auditing wasn't my thing.

Brett Biggs: 00:03:07

So I went to work at Phillips Petroleum Company in Oklahoma,

Brett Biggs: 00:03:12

and did kind of FP and A roles, accounting roles for about five

Brett Biggs: 00:03:15

years, but I went got my MBA. While I did that, I actually

Brett Biggs: 00:03:18

looked at going back full time. And just decided I liked my job

Brett Biggs: 00:03:22

and decided to go part time. So I went Oklahoma State, part

Brett Biggs: 00:03:26

time. I'm sure U of A had a great program at that time. But

Brett Biggs: 00:03:29

I just it was in Oklahoma. So I went to, got it from Oklahoma

Brett Biggs: 00:03:32

State. And I'm glad I did it. I wasn't sure exactly what I would

Brett Biggs: 00:03:36

do with it at some point. But I knew it was investing in myself.

Brett Biggs: 00:03:40

And yeah, I think it was it was it took four years. It was a 64

Brett Biggs: 00:03:45

hour program, which they don't do those anymore.

Brent Williams: 00:03:47

No, they don't.

Brett Biggs: 00:03:48

Yeah, so it was it

Brent Williams: 00:03:49

We don't

Brett Biggs: 00:03:50

It was but I'm glad I did it. And it really opened

Brett Biggs: 00:03:53

up some doors I think later in my career, not just the title

Brett Biggs: 00:03:57

but but the the disciplines that I learned, you know, during that

Brett Biggs: 00:04:02

period of time, so went to work at Leggett & Platt, which is in

Brett Biggs: 00:04:07

Carthage, Missouri.

Brent Williams: 00:04:08

So you went from public accounting your in energy

Brent Williams: 00:04:10

for a little while and now manufacturing

Brett Biggs: 00:04:13

I really just I wanted to do something, wasn't

Brett Biggs: 00:04:16

sure what, but outside of a little bit, maybe outside of

Brett Biggs: 00:04:19

accounting, but in business

Brent Williams: 00:04:21

Okay.

Brett Biggs: 00:04:22

And I got a chance. There was, this is when you

Brett Biggs: 00:04:24

found jobs in the newspaper. This is the old Tulsa World came

Brett Biggs: 00:04:29

to our house and they had a it was Leggett & Platt, happened to

Brett Biggs: 00:04:31

be where my wife was from Carthage, Missouri. And they

Brett Biggs: 00:04:34

were looking for an m&a analyst. So I thought mergers and

Brett Biggs: 00:04:36

acquisitions that'll be interesting. So I convinced them

Brett Biggs: 00:04:39

somehow that I could analyze mergers and acquisitions. And

Brett Biggs: 00:04:44

during that four year period of time at Leggett & Platt, we did

Brett Biggs: 00:04:47

probably 100 acquisitions, I remember but really, it was it

Brett Biggs: 00:04:52

was an m&a bootcamp and so really learned I did deals on my

Brett Biggs: 00:04:59

own at some point And that's where I learned to do m&a, a

Brett Biggs: 00:05:02

great company. And then I got called one day to, to see if I

Brett Biggs: 00:05:06

would consider by headhunters and see if I consider going to

Brett Biggs: 00:05:08

Walmart. And that's one of those ones you stop and think. Yeah, I

Brett Biggs: 00:05:15

love I love Leggett & Platt, but I've, I've got to go look at

Brett Biggs: 00:05:19

this and it was to be basically their number two m&a person

Brent Williams: 00:05:21

Okay.

Brett Biggs: 00:05:22

In international and so that's how I entered the

Brett Biggs: 00:05:25

company was through mergers and acquisitions and international I

Brett Biggs: 00:05:29

spent over my entire 23 years I spent 10 years in International.

Brent Williams: 00:05:33

Really, ok

Brett Biggs: 00:05:33

So I've seen seen a lot of the world.

Brent Williams: 00:05:36

Lots of miles?

Brett Biggs: 00:05:37

Lots of miles. Yeah, so that's kind of how I

Brett Biggs: 00:05:39

got to Walmart.

Brent Williams: 00:05:40

Okay. And then so you started in m&a. And then

Brent Williams: 00:05:44

you know that career inside Walmart just started to blossom.

Brett Biggs: 00:05:47

Yeah, we had, we had just when I came in, we had

Brett Biggs: 00:05:50

just bought Asda in the UK. So we'd had, we'd had some

Brett Biggs: 00:05:54

operations in Mexico and Brazil, maybe Argentina, I think, at

Brett Biggs: 00:05:58

that point, but we're just becoming an international

Brett Biggs: 00:06:01

company.

Brent Williams: 00:06:01

Okay.

Brett Biggs: 00:06:02

And I think at that time, maybe we had 20 billion in

Brett Biggs: 00:06:05

revenue, something like that, in in international, but we didn't

Brett Biggs: 00:06:09

have a pipeline of deals. And so for the first three or four

Brett Biggs: 00:06:12

years, I was on the road really trying to generate a pipeline,

Brett Biggs: 00:06:17

meeting, whether its founders, bankers, you know, company CEOs,

Brett Biggs: 00:06:24

and the one of the great things and terrifying things about

Brett Biggs: 00:06:27

Walmart was I was, when I went there I was 32 years old. So I'm

Brett Biggs: 00:06:29

doing this in my early 30s. And you're almost wondering why is

Brett Biggs: 00:06:33

this company

Brent Williams: 00:06:33

Really big deals, right

Brett Biggs: 00:06:34

Why is this company letting me do this. And I

Brett Biggs: 00:06:36

learned that throughout my entire career at Walmart, that

Brett Biggs: 00:06:38

they'll, they'll let you go about as far as you can go. And

Brett Biggs: 00:06:43

but it was, it was great. We grew and we grew in Brazil, grew

Brett Biggs: 00:06:47

in Central America, grew in Japan, grew in China, Northern

Brett Biggs: 00:06:51

Ireland, South Africa, Chile, we, we did a number of deals

Brett Biggs: 00:06:57

that, you know, not only help us build what became over $100

Brett Biggs: 00:07:01

billion part of the business, but places where we learned and

Brett Biggs: 00:07:08

brought things back to the US, for instance, our grocery

Brett Biggs: 00:07:11

business, a lot of the early learnings for our grocery

Brett Biggs: 00:07:13

business are from Asda, in the UK, and quality and private

Brett Biggs: 00:07:16

label and all those things we really learned from Asda,

Brett Biggs: 00:07:18

learned somewhat in Japan. I probably spent the most time in

Brett Biggs: 00:07:22

Japan, when we bought a company called Seiyu in 2003. I, over

Brett Biggs: 00:07:27

five years, I was there at least two years over that period of

Brett Biggs: 00:07:29

time. I was in Japan a lot. I was in Brazil a lot. And then at

Brett Biggs: 00:07:33

the toward the end of my m&a time. And then later on as CFO

Brett Biggs: 00:07:38

of International, and then CFO of the company I spent a lot of

Brett Biggs: 00:07:40

time in India.

Brett Biggs: 00:07:40

Okay, you know what. I want to ask you a question about m&a.

Brett Biggs: 00:07:43

Yeah.

Brent Williams: 00:07:43

You know, sort of looking back at what you,

Brent Williams: 00:07:45

what you learned, either more broadly or specific to Walmart,

Brent Williams: 00:07:48

however you want to

Brett Biggs: 00:07:49

What to do and what to not to do

Brent Williams: 00:07:51

Well or, like, you know, the deals that you

Brent Williams: 00:07:53

really say like, oh, that worked, you know, like any any

Brent Williams: 00:07:56

key like factors that someone you know, in that type of role

Brent Williams: 00:08:01

are considering m&a should be thinking about

Brett Biggs: 00:08:04

I would say, you know, candidly, a lot of your

Brett Biggs: 00:08:08

learnings come from what you wish you wouldn't have done we,

Brett Biggs: 00:08:10

when I, when I came in, we had done a couple of deals in

Brett Biggs: 00:08:13

Germany, two or three years before, and we ended up getting

Brett Biggs: 00:08:17

out of Germany in 2006. That was one of the things I did in m&a.

Brett Biggs: 00:08:22

But taking an American business into a foreign country, and

Brett Biggs: 00:08:28

particularly in a country that consumers shop differently than

Brett Biggs: 00:08:32

they do in the US. And you may think well, it's Europe, it's

Brett Biggs: 00:08:34

very similar to the US. Not in places like Germany, where

Brett Biggs: 00:08:38

they're very used to their, their certain type of retailer

Brett Biggs: 00:08:41

more discount retail, customers go to different shops to buy

Brett Biggs: 00:08:45

different things. The concept of Walmart, in theory was great.

Brett Biggs: 00:08:50

The application of doing Walmart, like we would have done

Brett Biggs: 00:08:56

it in the US was quite different.

Brent Williams: 00:08:58

Okay.

Brett Biggs: 00:08:58

But there are great learnings from that that I

Brett Biggs: 00:09:00

think, paid off later on. And there are certain times where,

Brett Biggs: 00:09:05

you know, you look at a strategy put together I'll give Japan is

Brett Biggs: 00:09:09

as an instance, when we went into Japan, you know, there was

Brett Biggs: 00:09:13

an idea that that could be a $25-30 billion market for us and

Brett Biggs: 00:09:16

for Walmart, you need scale you need you've got to do something

Brett Biggs: 00:09:20

that's big. And over time felt like we could roll up that

Brett Biggs: 00:09:24

industry a little bit in Japan all this is public. And just

Brett Biggs: 00:09:29

didn't quite work out that way. It was we bought a tough

Brett Biggs: 00:09:31

business and made it a lot better. And by the time we we

Brett Biggs: 00:09:34

sold it, it was in much better position than when we bought it

Brett Biggs: 00:09:36

but we just weren't able to kind of roll up that industry like we

Brett Biggs: 00:09:39

wanted to. UK was amazing, great investment for us for that long

Brett Biggs: 00:09:45

period of time. And then at some point, sometimes if it makes

Brett Biggs: 00:09:49

sense for someone else to own it,

Brent Williams: 00:09:50

Yeah,

Brett Biggs: 00:09:50

Then you do so it's not that well I wish you

Brett Biggs: 00:09:52

wouldn't have bought Asda. It's things change and you want to do

Brett Biggs: 00:09:55

things differently. The most successful international

Brett Biggs: 00:09:58

business we've had is Mexico.

Brent Williams: 00:09:59

Okay.

Brett Biggs: 00:09:59

Far and away. And a lot of things that worked well

Brett Biggs: 00:10:03

there we had a great partner, particularly early on, we became

Brett Biggs: 00:10:08

a public company. And which allows you to compensate people

Brett Biggs: 00:10:14

in country with with something that's in their country allows

Brett Biggs: 00:10:18

you to I think work with the government differently because

Brett Biggs: 00:10:21

you're a Mexican company. But we had almost any kind of format,

Brett Biggs: 00:10:25

you could think of some multi format where we could, we could

Brett Biggs: 00:10:29

appeal to all the different income levels in Mexico and is

Brett Biggs: 00:10:31

quite wide in a place like Mexico, put in small small

Brett Biggs: 00:10:35

towns, big cities, and incredible operating model. It's

Brett Biggs: 00:10:41

called WalMex. But our success there's been I think it's

Brett Biggs: 00:10:46

unrivaled in the world. I don't, I don't I think WalMex is maybe

Brett Biggs: 00:10:52

might be the best retailer in the world.

Brent Williams: 00:10:54

Interesting.

Brett Biggs: 00:10:56

It's part of Walmart, who's really, really

Brett Biggs: 00:10:58

good. yeah, but WalMex is incredible.

Brett Biggs: 00:11:00

Yeah.

Brent Williams: 00:11:02

Well, I interrupted you. But you know, I

Brent Williams: 00:11:04

had to ask that question. Because it's quite a unique

Brent Williams: 00:11:06

experience to get to go

Brett Biggs: 00:11:08

Yeah.

Brent Williams: 00:11:08

Work on those types of deals all across the

Brent Williams: 00:11:10

world.

Brett Biggs: 00:11:10

Yeah. And sometimes, you know, you do

Brett Biggs: 00:11:12

deals that were great 15 years ago, that now your strategy

Brett Biggs: 00:11:18

changes in Walmart strategies changed a lot because of what's

Brett Biggs: 00:11:20

going on with E commerce. And you just have, you have to

Brett Biggs: 00:11:23

prioritize different things. And it doesn't mean what you did 15

Brett Biggs: 00:11:25

years ago was was a mistake. And I think Walmart got a lot better

Brett Biggs: 00:11:29

at that. I think early in my tenure, if we stopped something

Brett Biggs: 00:11:33

or shut something down, it felt like a mistake, or a failure. I

Brett Biggs: 00:11:37

think the company evolved a lot over the last 20 years to say,

Brett Biggs: 00:11:42

hey, that's just it's not a priority now, we're not going to

Brett Biggs: 00:11:45

do that anymore. So that we can go do you know, work on India,

Brett Biggs: 00:11:48

the things that we want to do and grocery delivery. I think

Brett Biggs: 00:11:51

the company matured a lot.

Brent Williams: 00:11:53

Well, I think one thing you said that I find

Brent Williams: 00:11:55

so interesting is I don't know if you said in all those

Brent Williams: 00:11:57

experiences, but I expect that to be true, that you probably

Brent Williams: 00:12:00

learned something that you brought back into the US.

Brett Biggs: 00:12:03

Oh, yeah. Always. Always. A lot of times those

Brett Biggs: 00:12:07

people, yeah, bring people and we would, you know, take people

Brett Biggs: 00:12:10

in the US their entire careers and send them to a different

Brett Biggs: 00:12:12

country. And it gave us those opportunities.

Brent Williams: 00:12:15

So you're doing m&a and then you know, what's

Brent Williams: 00:12:18

the next step within Walmart?

Brett Biggs: 00:12:19

Yeah, I got asked to be assistant treasurer. And

Brett Biggs: 00:12:22

so I'm, I'm being asked to go from this, travel the world job

Brett Biggs: 00:12:26

to managing cash basically, around the world. And I'll be

Brett Biggs: 00:12:30

honest, I was not really excited about it. And little did I know,

Brett Biggs: 00:12:35

six months in we had the financial crisis in 2008. And so

Brett Biggs: 00:12:39

the world changed. It was great to be Walmart, when you go

Brett Biggs: 00:12:43

through a financial crisis and be a double A rated credit. But

Brett Biggs: 00:12:46

it was it was difficult. It was difficult for our suppliers, it

Brett Biggs: 00:12:50

was difficult for, you know, associates and you know, similar

Brett Biggs: 00:12:56

some of things we saw in the pandemic, it was a really tough

Brett Biggs: 00:12:58

period of time. And so I learned a lot about not just how to

Brett Biggs: 00:13:02

manage money, but banking, relationships and relationships

Brett Biggs: 00:13:07

matter. It's not just hey, I've got a contract with you. It's

Brett Biggs: 00:13:10

what do you do when the rubber is really hitting the road? And

Brett Biggs: 00:13:13

you, you, you need that relationship that you've

Brett Biggs: 00:13:16

developed all those years. And, you know, the way we treated

Brett Biggs: 00:13:20

partners, I think came back to our benefit during that period

Brett Biggs: 00:13:23

of time. Because, you know, people were there to help us

Brett Biggs: 00:13:27

when we, as we're going through that period of time. Then I went

Brett Biggs: 00:13:31

to Sam's Club,

Brent Williams: 00:13:32

okay.

Brett Biggs: 00:13:32

Went to be CFO, my first CFO job at Sam's and Sam's

Brett Biggs: 00:13:35

is one of the best parts of Walmart. I was there for two and

Brett Biggs: 00:13:40

a half years, but about a year into my CFO tenure. My boss at

Brett Biggs: 00:13:45

the time was Brian Cornell, who's the CEO at Target now. He

Brett Biggs: 00:13:49

he said, you seem to like and you enjoy being in stores and

Brett Biggs: 00:13:52

you enjoy, you know, operations. I said, I really do. And he

Brett Biggs: 00:13:55

said, would you consider ever going in operations and never

Brett Biggs: 00:13:58

thought about it? So I did.

Brent Williams: 00:14:02

So you go from a CFO role to

Brett Biggs: 00:14:03

I would surprise some people that I would go do

Brett Biggs: 00:14:06

that. Now I'm reporting to one of my former peers, the head of

Brett Biggs: 00:14:09

operations, so I moved to Dallas with my family,

Brent Williams: 00:14:11

Okay.

Brett Biggs: 00:14:11

And I have basically the southern half of

Brett Biggs: 00:14:13

the United States. That 240 clubs, something like that. But

Brett Biggs: 00:14:19

I'd gone for managing, like 55 people with my largest group now

Brett Biggs: 00:14:23

to 42,000 people.

Brent Williams: 00:14:25

It's a little bit of changing scale,

Brett Biggs: 00:14:26

No training manual on this. But I had the chief

Brett Biggs: 00:14:32

operating officer with my boss and he was great to give me

Brett Biggs: 00:14:35

enough leash to learn but not too much leash to leash to

Brett Biggs: 00:14:39

really be a problem. I learned working with people that were

Brett Biggs: 00:14:44

not finance majors really for the first time and they'd grown

Brett Biggs: 00:14:47

up in operations and many of my direct reports all knew more

Brett Biggs: 00:14:50

than I did, about operations and life candidly. And so, you know,

Brett Biggs: 00:14:56

trying to bring to that job what I was good at and I couldn't

Brett Biggs: 00:15:01

become them.

Brent Williams: 00:15:02

Right.

Brett Biggs: 00:15:02

They were great. They knew operations backwards

Brett Biggs: 00:15:05

and forwards, I had to learn enough to be credible. But there

Brett Biggs: 00:15:08

were things that I could do. And you know, whether that's just

Brett Biggs: 00:15:11

leadership, communicating. Financially, obviously, how do

Brett Biggs: 00:15:18

you look at a p&l? I think I was able to bring some things that

Brett Biggs: 00:15:21

maybe hadn't been thought about in that way.

Brent Williams: 00:15:24

So sounds like that particular role, had a big

Brent Williams: 00:15:27

impact on shape and who you became,

Brett Biggs: 00:15:29

Yeah,

Brent Williams: 00:15:30

As a leader

Brett Biggs: 00:15:30

Big impact and humbled me.

Brent Williams: 00:15:33

Yeah.

Brett Biggs: 00:15:33

Which was probably necessary at that point in my

Brett Biggs: 00:15:36

career, and prepared me. You know, what, it wasn't a job,

Brett Biggs: 00:15:42

nobody's gonna let me break anything that shouldn't be

Brett Biggs: 00:15:45

broken. But I got to fail a couple of times in some things,

Brett Biggs: 00:15:49

and that I learned how to be resilient, I think and learn how

Brett Biggs: 00:15:56

to communicate with people when we had a bad when we had a bad

Brett Biggs: 00:15:58

month. How do you realizing that whatever you say, is going to

Brett Biggs: 00:16:04

find its way down indirectly to 42,000 people? And how you say

Brett Biggs: 00:16:08

it. I learned yeah, I learned a lot about me. I think during

Brett Biggs: 00:16:14

that period, time, what I was good at what I wasn't good at.

Brent Williams: 00:16:18

Well, and you know, the way the way you said

Brent Williams: 00:16:19

that, you know, does, at least to me shows humility. Like, you

Brent Williams: 00:16:23

know, you knew

Brett Biggs: 00:16:24

I didn't have a choice being humbled.

Brent Williams: 00:16:27

Well, you're leading a bunch of people that

Brent Williams: 00:16:29

know a lot more about at least operations.

Brett Biggs: 00:16:31

Oh, yeah.

Brent Williams: 00:16:32

I mean, I think as a as a leader, coming in

Brent Williams: 00:16:34

recognizing that and then recognize, like, alright, well,

Brent Williams: 00:16:37

I bring something unique too. How do I how do I kind of shape

Brent Williams: 00:16:40

the world in that way?

Brett Biggs: 00:16:42

I'll never forget a conversations with a guy that

Brett Biggs: 00:16:44

that worked for me. And he, he was I was a bit of an experiment

Brett Biggs: 00:16:51

in that job. And he would have been a very logical person to

Brett Biggs: 00:16:53

have that job. And eventually, he got the job after I did. We

Brett Biggs: 00:16:58

were in the car one day, and I'd been in, we'd been in a club

Brett Biggs: 00:17:00

visit. And I'd said something to the effect of, hey, I'm, I'm not

Brett Biggs: 00:17:05

an expert here. But let me tell you a couple of things I see.

Brett Biggs: 00:17:07

And he said, whether I think you should be the boss, or whether

Brett Biggs: 00:17:12

you think you should be the boss, you're the boss. So start

Brett Biggs: 00:17:16

acting like it.

Brent Williams: 00:17:17

Interesting.

Brett Biggs: 00:17:21

That's operations it's very direct.

Brent Williams: 00:17:22

Yeah, that's right.

Brett Biggs: 00:17:23

Very direct place in the world.

Brent Williams: 00:17:24

That's right.

Brett Biggs: 00:17:24

So yeah, but it was helpful. I was like, alright,

Brett Biggs: 00:17:26

it's time to go.

Brent Williams: 00:17:27

Yeah. Do you go from that role into CFO?

Brett Biggs: 00:17:30

No, I went from that role in the CFO of the US.

Brent Williams: 00:17:32

Okay.

Brett Biggs: 00:17:33

So it's the first time I've been in Walmart at

Brett Biggs: 00:17:35

that time 13 years and never been in the US business.

Brent Williams: 00:17:38

Okay,

Brett Biggs: 00:17:39

Other than Sam's, I hadn't been in the big US

Brett Biggs: 00:17:41

supercenter business. So a CFO did that for two years. And

Brett Biggs: 00:17:44

that's, that's the first time I think, where I really felt the

Brett Biggs: 00:17:49

weight of the company. And that if you have a bad quarter, and

Brett Biggs: 00:17:54

Walmart US, the company has a bad quarter. And so as you're

Brett Biggs: 00:17:58

turning dials, you'd be really careful of how you do that. And,

Brett Biggs: 00:18:04

but worked with amazing people at in Walmart US and loved it,

Brett Biggs: 00:18:08

just fantastic job. So I did that for two years. And then my

Brett Biggs: 00:18:15

boss at time Charles Holly said, he brought me into his office he

Brett Biggs: 00:18:20

said sometimes there's things you want to do in life.

Brett Biggs: 00:18:22

Sometimes there are things you don't want to do. This is one of

Brett Biggs: 00:18:25

those latter. And we need you to go back and be CFO of

Brett Biggs: 00:18:29

International we've, he goes I know, it's not what you want to

Brett Biggs: 00:18:33

do. But this is what we need you to do so I was like, alright.

Brett Biggs: 00:18:37

And it was fine. I went back. And, you know, I knew a lot of

Brett Biggs: 00:18:42

what we were doing, I had done in my earlier part of

Brett Biggs: 00:18:45

international. So I knew the ins and outs of international and it

Brett Biggs: 00:18:51

would have changed a lot things have changed during that period

Brett Biggs: 00:18:53

of time that I've been gone. And so you have to reflect and then

Brett Biggs: 00:18:57

do some things differently. But so I did that for a couple years

Brett Biggs: 00:19:00

and then was asked to be CFO of the company.

Brent Williams: 00:19:02

Well, pretty interesting, right? So

Brent Williams: 00:19:04

operations, US International. And

Brett Biggs: 00:19:08

I mean, in hindsight, my career couldn't

Brett Biggs: 00:19:10

have been managed better than it than it was and wasn't. It

Brett Biggs: 00:19:13

wasn't always obvious. And, you know, hindsight, and I tell

Brett Biggs: 00:19:17

people this sometimes, particularly a place like

Brett Biggs: 00:19:19

Walmart, you know, if you would have said, give me your 10 year

Brett Biggs: 00:19:23

plan, I would have missed opportunities. So it's great to

Brett Biggs: 00:19:28

have a plan.

Brent Williams: 00:19:29

Yeah.

Brett Biggs: 00:19:30

But don't be burdened by it.

Brent Williams: 00:19:32

Yeah. Well, and you know, I mean, paths aren't

Brent Williams: 00:19:36

linear always. And so it's and honestly, it's a lot of fun to

Brent Williams: 00:19:40

embrace that once you embrace it.

Brett Biggs: 00:19:42

Well, in the in the yeah. And you know, in the, when

Brett Biggs: 00:19:45

I took the assisstant treasurer role, I actually had people ask

Brett Biggs: 00:19:47

if I'd been demoted, like my friends and I wasn't sure

Brett Biggs: 00:19:51

actually, I maybe I was, I don't know. And then again, when I

Brett Biggs: 00:19:55

went into operations, people were like, what? Like, what are

Brett Biggs: 00:19:59

you you're doing and you seem to be on this trajectory to maybe

Brett Biggs: 00:20:03

have a shot at the CFO role. This feels like a, you're moving

Brett Biggs: 00:20:07

out of Bentonville, you're going to work for one of your former

Brett Biggs: 00:20:09

peers. What are you doing? And I just knew I had people that

Brett Biggs: 00:20:18

thought it was a good idea. In hindsight, had I not had that

Brett Biggs: 00:20:21

job, I, I'd be a different person,

Brent Williams: 00:20:24

You seemed open to saying yes.

Brett Biggs: 00:20:27

I was for that one, the Assistant Treasurer, if you

Brett Biggs: 00:20:31

asked my former boss, he would say I really did not handle that

Brett Biggs: 00:20:34

well. And matter of fact, when I, I tell people this when I

Brett Biggs: 00:20:41

finally decided, it was decided I was going to do this. But when

Brett Biggs: 00:20:44

I finally decided that I was going to do this, the I was

Brett Biggs: 00:20:49

having this when you back in your desk phones, and the CEOs

Brett Biggs: 00:20:52

name came up was Lee Scott. And Lee was funny and sarcastic. And

Brett Biggs: 00:20:56

he goes, so I hear you finally decided to pull your head out of

Brett Biggs: 00:21:01

your butt, and do what we asked you to do. And he said next

Brett Biggs: 00:21:05

time, how about not make it so difficult?

Brent Williams: 00:21:08

Again, fairly direct, right?

Brett Biggs: 00:21:09

Fairly direct. And it was like, Yes, sir. So when

Brett Biggs: 00:21:14

they came the second time, I was like, yeah, sure, whatever you

Brett Biggs: 00:21:17

think.

Brent Williams: 00:21:17

Got it. Now I see the learning process.

Brett Biggs: 00:21:20

Yes, there was a learning process in there.

Brent Williams: 00:21:22

You know, so Brett serving as CEO of, you

Brent Williams: 00:21:25

know, largest company in the CFO of

Brett Biggs: 00:21:27

Yeah, I don't want I don't want Doug's job.

Brent Williams: 00:21:29

The largest company in the world is a pretty

Brent Williams: 00:21:33

unique experience.

Brett Biggs: 00:21:34

Very.

Brent Williams: 00:21:36

Just kind of interested in you know, how did

Brent Williams: 00:21:38

that evolve? What all did you learn? I know, there's probably

Brent Williams: 00:21:42

1000 things you could say just a couple of the key.

Brett Biggs: 00:21:45

You know, it's interesting, when Doug, Doug

Brett Biggs: 00:21:47

asked me, I remember I'll never forget the day I went in his

Brett Biggs: 00:21:49

office and he said, hey, we'd like you to be CFO of Walmart.

Brett Biggs: 00:21:54

And you kind of get chills up your spine, I still do when I

Brett Biggs: 00:21:59

think about it. And I had never worked for Doug, we had missed

Brett Biggs: 00:22:02

each other our entire careers. And I said, how do you know, I'm

Brett Biggs: 00:22:06

the guy. And he said, cuz, obviously I've, you know, been

Brett Biggs: 00:22:11

aware of you views as you come to the company. Because I know a

Brett Biggs: 00:22:14

lot of people who think you're the guy, and I really trust

Brett Biggs: 00:22:17

them. Which is kind of how Walmart works. It's it was a lot

Brett Biggs: 00:22:23

of group involvement decisions, and you take people you can't

Brett Biggs: 00:22:28

know everything about Walmart. So you've got to take people's

Brett Biggs: 00:22:30

advice. And, and so he was that was an interesting conversation.

Brett Biggs: 00:22:39

The job, I was in it for almost seven years, the role at the end

Brett Biggs: 00:22:43

was very different than what it was at the start. Primarily

Brett Biggs: 00:22:47

because the strategy was so different. When I left versus

Brett Biggs: 00:22:50

when I started as we got much heavier into online grocery and

Brett Biggs: 00:22:55

E commerce and and even one day, Doug, I'll never forget, Doug

Brett Biggs: 00:23:00

said to me, I think it was the first day I was on the job. He

Brett Biggs: 00:23:04

said, you're going to have to my exact words, your, you have to

Brett Biggs: 00:23:10

unlearn some things that you've learned coming through the

Brett Biggs: 00:23:13

company, and you're gonna have to forgive yourself for some

Brett Biggs: 00:23:15

decisions you made that you'd probably have to undo. I thought

Brett Biggs: 00:23:19

that was great. It was, it was kind of liberating to because

Brett Biggs: 00:23:23

there were things that came along where you were like, why

Brett Biggs: 00:23:25

did we do that? Why was I a part of that decision? And

Brent Williams: 00:23:28

yeah,

Brett Biggs: 00:23:29

You know, sometimes they were bad decisions. But

Brett Biggs: 00:23:31

sometimes it was just it was 10 years ago, what in the world had

Brett Biggs: 00:23:34

changed dramatically

Brent Williams: 00:23:35

Amd leading people to, you know, so he gave

Brent Williams: 00:23:38

you the license, you know, to be able to think that way and feel

Brent Williams: 00:23:42

that way?

Brett Biggs: 00:23:42

Yeah. And, you know, and I said, look, my

Brett Biggs: 00:23:45

background is very different than Charles and. And he goes,

Brett Biggs: 00:23:51

but that's, you know, that's, that's kind of what we need for

Brett Biggs: 00:23:54

the next five years, and the person came up behind me, he's

Brett Biggs: 00:23:56

got a different background than I do. And that's what you need

Brett Biggs: 00:23:58

for the next five years and you learn, you know, how people in

Brett Biggs: 00:24:01

the right place right time and, and, you know, then you need a

Brett Biggs: 00:24:05

different type of person, which is, you know, that's okay.

Brett Biggs: 00:24:08

That's what that's what organizations are meant to do.

Brent Williams: 00:24:10

So the strategy shifted

Brett Biggs: 00:24:13

Dramatically.

Brent Williams: 00:24:14

And so how does that affect the CFO role?

Brett Biggs: 00:24:18

Well, when I first came in, I think two days after

Brett Biggs: 00:24:23

I was announced, we went to the street and said, We've got to

Brett Biggs: 00:24:29

take our earnings down. We got to invest in stores, we got to

Brett Biggs: 00:24:31

invest in E commerce. We've been under investing, and we've got

Brett Biggs: 00:24:35

to go do this. And you can imagine what the reaction stock

Brett Biggs: 00:24:37

was at that day, it went down 10-15% over a few days, and now

Brett Biggs: 00:24:42

we're trading at 12 times earnings.

Brent Williams: 00:24:44

Welcome to the role, right?

Brett Biggs: 00:24:45

Yeah, I mean, I wasn't you know, officially in

Brett Biggs: 00:24:47

the role, but it was, you know, here, here you go. And I always

Brett Biggs: 00:24:51

appreciate actually my predecessor took that hit for me

Brett Biggs: 00:24:55

before before I came on, but, you know, I was coming in in a

Brett Biggs: 00:24:58

very different situation. because we had been wildly

Brett Biggs: 00:25:01

successful, but our comps were slowing down. And there were

Brett Biggs: 00:25:04

just signs that an Amazon was becoming a juggernaut. And, you

Brett Biggs: 00:25:11

know, one of the one of the best books I ever read was pretty

Brett Biggs: 00:25:16

much spot on for Walmart, which was called Innovators Dilemma by

Brett Biggs: 00:25:21

Clay Christensen. And if you haven't read it, you need to

Brett Biggs: 00:25:23

read it. Because it talks about companies that didn't reinvent

Brett Biggs: 00:25:26

themselves, because they were doing so well. And Walmart would

Brett Biggs: 00:25:29

be a perfect example of that. And by not reinventing

Brett Biggs: 00:25:32

themselves, someone else helped reinvent them, and put them out

Brett Biggs: 00:25:34

of business, which is, you know, we had Walmart and I mean and

Brett Biggs: 00:25:39

Kmart and Sears had ignored us for a long time until it was too

Brett Biggs: 00:25:42

late. And to some degree, we had kind of, we didn't ignore

Brett Biggs: 00:25:46

Amazon, but we had not fully leaned into what that business

Brett Biggs: 00:25:51

model looked like. And we were emboldened that they weren't

Brett Biggs: 00:25:56

profitable, you know, well, their not profitable, that just

Brett Biggs: 00:25:58

doesn't make any sense. Why would we do that? And then, all

Brett Biggs: 00:26:01

of a sudden, they came up with AWS, Amazon Web Services. And

Brett Biggs: 00:26:06

within three years, they were like 30 billion in cash flow.

Brett Biggs: 00:26:11

Like, wow, okay. Game on. And that was most of my tenure was

Brett Biggs: 00:26:17

kind of during that period of time where Amazon and was really

Brett Biggs: 00:26:23

growing, we slow down our store growth, which was tough one,

Brett Biggs: 00:26:29

because we had we built stores, that's kind of what we did as

Brett Biggs: 00:26:32

Walmart. And we had grown 2-3-400 supercenters, sometimes

Brett Biggs: 00:26:36

in a year, which is staggering, that we were able to even put up

Brett Biggs: 00:26:39

that many stores. But now all of a sudden, you know, the stores

Brett Biggs: 00:26:43

aren't, you know, maybe the new ones weren't returning quite as

Brett Biggs: 00:26:46

well as you would like. And people are shifting to e

Brett Biggs: 00:26:49

commerce. And we were behind. We were in Doug kind of said that

Brett Biggs: 00:26:54

in 2000, October 2015, we're behind. And now we've got to

Brett Biggs: 00:26:58

catch up. And I think to his credit, in particular, and the

Brett Biggs: 00:27:02

board's credit, and Walmart's in a very, very different place in

Brett Biggs: 00:27:08

2023, than it was 2015. And Doug was interesting. He's, you know,

Brett Biggs: 00:27:16

been with the company, 30 plus years, grew up in the company,

Brett Biggs: 00:27:19

so the least likely person to change a company, somebody's

Brett Biggs: 00:27:22

been there their entire life. And he managed to change how we

Brett Biggs: 00:27:29

viewed ourselves and how and how the view world viewed us when we

Brett Biggs: 00:27:33

went from a 12, multiple 26, 27 multiple, while our earnings

Brett Biggs: 00:27:38

really weren't growing all that much. But did it without

Brett Biggs: 00:27:41

changing the culture is really hard to do.

Brent Williams: 00:27:45

Which if you wouldn't have grown up in the

Brent Williams: 00:27:47

company, that would have been a part that's probably hard to do.

Brent Williams: 00:27:49

Right?

Brett Biggs: 00:27:50

Yeah, I mean, culture evolved and, you know,

Brett Biggs: 00:27:52

we're gonna have a new home office, and we're gonna have to

Brett Biggs: 00:27:55

recruit differently than we did. And there's, you know, different

Brett Biggs: 00:27:58

types of skill sets inside the company. But that gut of the

Brett Biggs: 00:28:01

culture, Sam Walton would recognize it. No doubt about it.

Brent Williams: 00:28:06

What was your favorite part of the job?

Brett Biggs: 00:28:10

Oh, I mean, I, people, I and it's the part,

Brett Biggs: 00:28:14

it's a bit of why I'm here today on campus, I miss, I miss

Brett Biggs: 00:28:19

interacting with mentoring. You do it in different ways. But

Brett Biggs: 00:28:24

when you have a group that large and you get to see people get

Brett Biggs: 00:28:28

promoted, where I was talking to earlier about Brandi Joplin,

Brett Biggs: 00:28:31

who's a U of A grad and

Brent Williams: 00:28:32

Absolutely,

Brett Biggs: 00:28:33

The day, I got to promote her to be head of

Brett Biggs: 00:28:36

internal audit, why she wanted that job I don't know but she

Brett Biggs: 00:28:39

wanted Internal Audit job. And being able to promote her was

Brett Biggs: 00:28:43

just that's hard to replicate. Watching someone grow and, you

Brett Biggs: 00:28:51

know, and other people where you feel like, where people were

Brett Biggs: 00:28:54

really direct with me in my career actually made me

Brett Biggs: 00:28:58

comfortable being more direct with people when I saw something

Brett Biggs: 00:29:01

that was holding them back from being great. Maybe they were

Brett Biggs: 00:29:03

good, but not great. And you see that element change, and they

Brett Biggs: 00:29:08

become great. And you had some small part of that. I don't

Brett Biggs: 00:29:11

think you can replicate that. Really hard.

Brent Williams: 00:29:14

Yeah. Well, you know, you've you've retired you

Brent Williams: 00:29:20

don't seem really retired to me. There's a lot of responsibility.

Brent Williams: 00:29:24

So what what's the day look like for you?

Brett Biggs: 00:29:27

I wanted to have a longer kind of second phase of

Brett Biggs: 00:29:30

my career. I was pretty sure I wanted to do that. And so I'm on

Brett Biggs: 00:29:35

you mentioned I'm on three boards and they're all very

Brett Biggs: 00:29:37

different, which is something I wanted I want something in tech

Brett Biggs: 00:29:40

to keep me connected to that world. So Adobe, and now with

Brett Biggs: 00:29:43

what they're doing Adobe is doing in AI is right at the

Brett Biggs: 00:29:47

forefront of tech. P&G is like watching Walmart from the other

Brett Biggs: 00:29:52

side. And so there's a lot of experience I have that can be

Brett Biggs: 00:29:56

you know, hopefully helpful to to a company like Procter and

Brett Biggs: 00:29:58

Gamble. Great company, great reputation. And then Yum!

Brett Biggs: 00:30:02

Brands, which is very, very operational, very multi unit

Brett Biggs: 00:30:08

they have 55,000 units. So that kind of felt familiar to me. So

Brett Biggs: 00:30:11

I've got two boards that feel a little familiar. I've got one

Brett Biggs: 00:30:14

that's a little over my head at times in Adobe. And then I

Brett Biggs: 00:30:18

wanted to do you know my background in m&a, I always

Brett Biggs: 00:30:22

enjoyed that. And so doing some advisory work with Blackstone

Brett Biggs: 00:30:25

is, but even within part of the reason I chose Blackstone, and

Brett Biggs: 00:30:31

they were nice enough to let me come on board is they have that

Brett Biggs: 00:30:35

scale that Walmart has. And I like I you ask me things like

Brett Biggs: 00:30:38

about Walmart, I like the scale of Walmart, because there's so

Brett Biggs: 00:30:40

many things you can do in the world, you're you get your hands

Brett Biggs: 00:30:44

in a little bit of everything which I enjoyed and Blackstone's

Brett Biggs: 00:30:47

very similar, it's kind of what's going on in the world.

Brett Biggs: 00:30:50

Blackstone's involved in it. And so, you know, I can work on m&a,

Brett Biggs: 00:30:53

I can help them with existing companies. I do some CFO

Brett Biggs: 00:30:56

mentoring, there's a lot of different things that I didn't

Brett Biggs: 00:30:59

start at Walmart that I can think I can do at Blackstone as

Brett Biggs: 00:31:01

well.

Brent Williams: 00:31:02

Sounds like

Brett Biggs: 00:31:03

and I get to do things like this, which I really

Brett Biggs: 00:31:07

I mean, to be fair to everybody listening, I asked to do this,

Brett Biggs: 00:31:10

this this, this is not you guys ask I came and said, hey, how

Brett Biggs: 00:31:13

can I help? And because I really enjoy being involved on campus,

Brett Biggs: 00:31:19

and you know giving back in ways that people gave back to me.

Brent Williams: 00:31:24

Well, as everyone listening could

Brent Williams: 00:31:26

imagine, that was a pretty easy, yes. It's actually one of the

Brent Williams: 00:31:29

things that, you know, when I kind of drill in and think about

Brent Williams: 00:31:32

the Walton College, I, I tell people all the time that I feel

Brent Williams: 00:31:36

like one thing that's a little unique here, you know, and in

Brent Williams: 00:31:40

our state in Northwest Arkansas is the business community is

Brent Williams: 00:31:44

tightly connected, you know, and so, you know, we have the

Brent Williams: 00:31:48

advantage to really get it engage companies and people and

Brent Williams: 00:31:53

professionals in what we're doing in the business. So you

Brent Williams: 00:31:56

know, from, from teaching to various kinds of experiences,

Brent Williams: 00:32:00

like we're doing today. And so, you know, you'll be interacting

Brent Williams: 00:32:04

with students throughout the day. But just as you think

Brent Williams: 00:32:07

about, you know, our students, early career professionals,

Brent Williams: 00:32:11

people building their career, as you look back, and I know,

Brent Williams: 00:32:16

you've got a, you know, much of a second phase, you know, to go,

Brent Williams: 00:32:21

but as you look back, any just key advice you would offer up?

Brett Biggs: 00:32:26

Yeah, we've I recruited a lot of students from

Brett Biggs: 00:32:28

here

Brent Williams: 00:32:29

Yes you did,

Brett Biggs: 00:32:30

which was always good, good for the company. You

Brett Biggs: 00:32:33

know, we were talking a little bit about it earlier. You come

Brett Biggs: 00:32:38

to university to learn, you're worried about your GPA, and you

Brett Biggs: 00:32:41

should be as a parent, I will say that you should be worried

Brett Biggs: 00:32:43

about your GPA. But it's, it's experiences that you can get in

Brett Biggs: 00:32:49

these four years. Where it's leading people, learning how to

Brett Biggs: 00:32:54

interact with people, learning how to interact with your

Brett Biggs: 00:32:57

professors that are, you know, older than you interacting with

Brett Biggs: 00:33:01

different types of people that, you know, if you grew up in one,

Brett Biggs: 00:33:04

maybe grew up a small town, you come to a place like this, and

Brett Biggs: 00:33:06

all of a sudden, you're with people from all over the world.

Brett Biggs: 00:33:09

They're learning to interact in that environment. Because when

Brett Biggs: 00:33:12

we, when we are hiring people that, you know, speak for

Brett Biggs: 00:33:15

Walmart, but I would assume other companies as well. If

Brett Biggs: 00:33:19

you're if you're interviewing with us, we probably know your,

Brett Biggs: 00:33:21

your, your GPA is pretty good. And somebody has said something

Brett Biggs: 00:33:26

good about you to get you to that interview. But are you

Brett Biggs: 00:33:31

curious? So while you're here, you know, learning I tell

Brett Biggs: 00:33:35

students read them. If you're not reading the Wall Street

Brett Biggs: 00:33:36

Journal, what are you doing? Like you should know what's

Brett Biggs: 00:33:39

going on in the world. Be curious, ask great questions.

Brett Biggs: 00:33:44

What's your energy level like? Do you look like somebody that's

Brett Biggs: 00:33:47

going to not only work hard, but just be productive? The main

Brett Biggs: 00:33:53

thing too, though, is candidly do I? Do I like you? Are you

Brett Biggs: 00:33:59

likable when we interview because I've got to assess how

Brett Biggs: 00:34:02

are you going to relate to people across the organization,

Brett Biggs: 00:34:05

because you may be great your job, but if you can't

Brett Biggs: 00:34:07

communicate what you're doing, or you can't work with the

Brett Biggs: 00:34:10

person in the cubicle or in the department next to you. It's

Brett Biggs: 00:34:15

just not going to be enough. It might be enough for three or

Brett Biggs: 00:34:17

four years of your career. But after that, and if you want to

Brett Biggs: 00:34:21

get promoted, and you know, go on to do what you want to do.,

Brett Biggs: 00:34:25

working with people, being a leader, you don't have to have a

Brett Biggs: 00:34:29

large group to be a leader leading in events and

Brett Biggs: 00:34:32

activities. That's what we're looking for. All right. Do you

Brett Biggs: 00:34:35

know what's going on in the world? It seems simple, but a

Brett Biggs: 00:34:38

lot of students I've interviewed don't, and they don't actually

Brett Biggs: 00:34:41

seem that curious about what's going on in the world. If you

Brett Biggs: 00:34:43

come to a place like Walmart, you kind of need to know what's

Brett Biggs: 00:34:47

going on in the world.

Brent Williams: 00:34:48

I think you said this earlier used a phrase

Brent Williams: 00:34:50

something like the soft skills are really the hard skills.

Brett Biggs: 00:34:53

Yeah,

Brent Williams: 00:34:54

Maybe the hard skills to develop.

Brett Biggs: 00:34:56

They are and I think I think they're teachable.

Brett Biggs: 00:34:59

I gotta asked one time do you think those are inborn? All of

Brett Biggs: 00:35:02

us have DNA and there's some of that that's I mean, I can be

Brett Biggs: 00:35:07

extroverted ish. But you can I think you can, you can teach

Brett Biggs: 00:35:11

people and they can learn to interact with people

Brett Biggs: 00:35:14

differently. And you know, so when he's brought other shell, I

Brett Biggs: 00:35:19

think you can do that so

Brent Williams: 00:35:21

I think so till you know, and I think it's one

Brent Williams: 00:35:23

thing about, you know, a business school and a business

Brent Williams: 00:35:25

school like ours. I encourage, you know, students take

Brent Williams: 00:35:29

advantage of everything you can, you know, classroom is

Brent Williams: 00:35:33

critically important, but it's all the other things that that

Brent Williams: 00:35:36

make up the experience of whether that's internships or

Brent Williams: 00:35:39

simply, you know, come and spend a few minutes with you. Getting

Brent Williams: 00:35:43

some coaching, some mentoring, and

Brett Biggs: 00:35:45

That doesn't mean be in 12 clubs on campus, but

Brett Biggs: 00:35:49

find a couple and get some leadership positions, make a

Brett Biggs: 00:35:53

difference. Tell me what you achieved in those couple of

Brett Biggs: 00:35:56

years you were president of the business club or whatever it is

Brett Biggs: 00:35:59

on campus.

Brent Williams: 00:35:59

Absolutely. Well, thank you for spending

Brent Williams: 00:36:02

time with us today.

Brett Biggs: 00:36:02

Yeah, my pleasure.

Brent Williams: 00:36:03

And what a career and I look forward to

Brent Williams: 00:36:06

seeing what's going to happen in the future.

Brett Biggs: 00:36:08

Thanks.

Brent Williams: 00:36:09

On behalf of the Walton College thank you for

Brent Williams: 00:36:12

joining us for this captivating conversation. To stay connected

Brent Williams: 00:36:16

and never miss an episode, simply search for Be Epic on

Brent Williams: 00:36:19

your preferred podcast service.